With the sharp decline in the price of lithium carbonate, the price of lithium energy storage system is also falling rapidly. Sodium ion battery energy storage, which had hoped to stand out with its cost advantage, is in an awkward situation.
On May 31, Guangzhou Development (600098.SH) released the announcement of the winning candidate for the 100 MW / 200 MWh 50 MW / 100 MWh project of energy storage system integration procurement in Guangzhou Honghu Economic Development Zone.
Shanghai Ronghe Reserve Energy Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as Ronghe Reserve) became the first candidate winning the bid price of 103 million yuan, equivalent to the unit price of 1.03 yuan / Wh.
The bidding will be completed in the form of general contract turnkey. The energy storage system of the project will be provided by the tenderee, including converter, step-up transformer, sodium ion battery, battery management system, etc.
According to the candidate announcement, the demonstration project should complete the full capacity grid connection of the energy storage system before June 30, obtain the acceptance of the power grid and Hubei Energy Bureau and obtain the visa. If it all goes well, the demonstration project may become one of the largest sodium ion energy storage power stations put into operation in China.
It is worth noting that just two days before the announcement of the sodium electric energy storage project, CNPC Jichai Power Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as Jiichai Power) released the announcement of the winning candidate of the 5 MWh liquid cooled energy storage system. Haichen Energy Storage and Chuneng New Energy became the first and second winning candidates of the project respectively.
Jichai power capped the energy storage battery system and cell. Among them, the maximum price of energy storage battery system is 0.478 yuan / Wh, and the maximum price of battery cell is 0.33 yuan / Wh. That price has halved from last year’s offer. The low price limit has triggered a hot discussion in the industry, which is called the “historical minimum price limit” bidding project of energy storage.
It is not difficult to find that the winning price of the current sodium ion energy storage project is much higher than that of the lithium ion energy storage project.
Sodium ion battery is a battery that uses sodium salt as the electrode material. Compared with lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries have the advantages of rich resource reserve, low cost and fast charging. In theory, sodium battery materials can cost about 30-40 percent lower than lithium-ion batteries. However, it lags behind lithium-ion batteries in terms of energy density, and is suitable for electric two-wheelers, energy storage, low-speed electric vehicles and other market segments.
In December 2022, as the price of lithium carbonate, one of the important raw materials of lithium ion batteries, once rose to 600,000 yuan / ton. From this year, sodium batteries stood out with their cost advantage, and a large number of enterprises accelerated their layout in the field of sodium batteries.
Li Shujun, general manager of Zhongke Hai Na, has said that there is no doubt about the future of sodium ion batteries. Resources are the underlying logic, and cost is the most critical determinant.
However, as the price of lithium carbonate plummeted last year, the cost advantage of sodium-ion batteries has gradually weakened, and even in energy storage, it has begun to lose its advantage.
The latest data from the Starting Point Research Institute shows that on June 2, the average price of lithium iron phosphate square energy storage battery was 0.45 yuan / Wh, and the average price of square sodium battery energy storage battery was 0.69 yuan / Wh.
Penghui Energy (300438.SZ), Huayang Stock (600348.SH) and other enterprises have also publicly stated that due to the significant decline in the price of lithium carbonate, the cost of sodium electricity has no significant advantage in the short term, which delays the large-scale commercialization of sodium electricity to a certain extent.
In this way, the current continued layout of sodium electric energy storage is not “cost-effective”. However, the sodium-electric energy storage market is still in full swing.
According to gaogong lithium battery statistics, in the first two months of this year alone, five sodium electric energy storage projects started bidding or put into construction.
Up to now, more than 50 enterprises, including Zhongkehai Sodium, Easy, BYD (002594.SZ), Ronghe Yuan Storage, Zhongsodium Energy, Cube Energy, Yiwei Lithium Energy (300014.SZ), Penghui Energy, China Belgium Energy, and super sodium new energy, have entered the sodium electric energy storage.
“Once on the thief boat, you have to do it without doing it, otherwise the sunk cost will be too big.”In view of the above enterprises against the trend layout of sodium electric energy storage phenomenon, an industry insider to the interface news so said.
He pointed out that in the first two years of lithium carbonate prices rose, the industry is generally optimistic about sodium electricity. Now the production line has been built, the research and development funds have been invested, the enterprise can only hard scalp to continue to do.
Xin Luo information senior researcher Zhang Jinhui has a different understanding. He told Jiemian news that the current sodium electric energy storage is still in the early experimental stage, and the price is indeed high, but once the sodium electric energy storage is achieved on a large scale, the price will naturally fall in the process of marketization.
“The value of sodium-electric energy storage cannot be measured by whether it is profitable. At the current stage, the price of sodium electric energy storage is not comparable with lithium electric energy storage.”
At the same time, he said, the price of lithium carbonate will not always be low, and may be increased in the future, so the price can not be viewed from a static perspective, sodium electricity still has a chance to regain the cost advantage. The latest data from Shanghai Steel Union shows that on June 6, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 101,500 yuan / ton.
According to the southern power grid newspaper, the national power energy storage standardization technical committee deputy secretary general, southern power grid strategic technical experts said Chen man, sodium ion battery energy storage into the large-scale development stage, cost can reduce 20% to 30%, in fully improve the battery structure and process, improve the premise of material utilization and cycle life, KWH cost can dip to 0.2 yuan / KWH, about 50% of the lithium ion KWH cost.
In Zhang Jinhui’s view, in addition to the cost, the real significance of sodium electricity also lies in its rich resource reserves. According to public information, sodium reserves in the earth’s crust are about 2.36 percent, more than 400 times that than lithium. At the same time, the positive electrode of sodium ion battery does not need to use rare precious metals such as cobalt and nickel, and the preparation is relatively simple, which can effectively reduce the dependence on resources.
It is also worth noting that in the bidding of the sodium electric energy storage project of Guangzhou Development, both the tenderer and the pre-winning bidder have state-owned assets background.
Guangfa Group is a large state-owned holding listed company in Guangzhou, whose business covers power, energy logistics, gas, new energy and energy finance. The company has been listed on the Fortune China 500 list for 13 consecutive years, with operating revenue of 46.8 billion yuan and total assets of 74 billion yuan last year.
Ronghe storage is an energy storage product technology company under the State Power Investment Group. The company focuses on research and development, manufacturing of large-scale energy storage system integration products, industrial and commercial energy storage products. Since its establishment, the cumulative installed capacity of the project has exceeded 8 GWh.
According to the starting point of sodium electricity statistics, at present, “five and six small, two networks, two construction” and other large central power enterprises, eight have increased the layout of sodium power, including National Energy, China Huadian, China Datang, State Power Investment, China Southern Power Grid, China Energy Construction, China Power Construction, etc.
On May 11, the Fulin sodium ion battery energy storage power station was put into operation in Nanning, Guangxi, which is the first time that sodium ion battery technology has been applied to a large capacity energy storage power station in China.
Zhang Jinhui pointed out that the current sodium electric energy storage bidding or operation projects are basically demonstration projects. At this stage, the bidding and construction of sodium electric energy storage projects is often not to make money, but to provide enterprises with scene experimental products to promote the development of the industry.
“Although it is not profitable, the industry needs to develop, so central soes should shoulder their responsibility and play the lead role.”Zhang Jinhui said.